Previously on Billions: Season 2, Episode 1

Bobby thinks a race course is a good meeting place to discuss how he and Orrin are going to win.

The soundtrack to season 2 seems like it will be every bit as good as season 1.

The Axe capital staff are having a spontaneous conference outside while waiting to get back to work. Apparently, they have been working from home for 3 weeks. Mafee is not buying the “fire extinguisher system malfunction”. I knew there was a reason I like Mafee!

Axe is not letting anyone in until Wags shows up as

“You don’t let the animals in until their keeper is here too!”

Oh, welcome back, Billions. You have been missed!

Oliver Dake from Office of Professional Responsibility shows up to ruin Chuck’s morning. He is there to conduct an investigation into Chuck’s use of his office. It seems Chuck was warned he was coming as he has an office all set up for him.

The animals are allowed in and Axe has certainly ramped up the security, magnetic ID bracelets etc.

Source: Showtime

We see Wendy giving a talk. First impressions and all that…mean I don’t like Todd. Something tells me we will be seeing more of him. Wendy starts to talk about performance and inevitably innuendo is first on the menu in this room. Unfortunately, for this dude, he is no Wags and he can’t pull it off. Wendy smacks him down.

Axe is talking about a meteor heading for the Hedge fund industry. That they have brought it on themselves and are already dead, but in this second where they are still breathing, he will fight the inevitable.

He tells them if they have a card in front of them to pick it up and put it in front of their faces. If this room represents all the Hedge Funds and businesses, then the only ones left in 18 months are the ones without.

source: Showtime

He now has a chief of staff in front of whom all conversations will take place.

Hall is following Wendy.

Lara is dropping the boys off at School. One of the girls is having a seizure and Lara’s nursing comes into use.

Meeting at Axe’s with Wags, Orrin and Hall discussing the misconduct investigation into Chuck’s office. Wags notes that Chuck is in Bobby’s head. Bobby wants Hall’s people all over him and Orrin to file a lawsuit. Orrin advises against it as does Wags who thinks it is a terrible idea if Bobby still wants Wendy back working for him. Hall advises Wendy and Chuck are still separated. Wags offers a name for a replacement, while Bobby is demanding to know Wendy’s movements.

Lara is kicking off about the Nurse not taking care of the child who was having the seizure. She throws her weight around to get the Nurse fired.

Chuck is giving a talk now and making terrible jokes that you absolutely will hear at similar gatherings of the legal profession anywhere. Bryan, Kate and Lonnie aren’t really paying attention. Bryan thinks he’s seasoned and smart because he orders two drinks at a time at these events.

Chuck comes over to stoke up the interest among the three in the now vacant position. Chuck talks of finding different ways to get what you want and of learning lessons. He uses a recent chess game in Washington Park as an example again of creating a just environment. It is interesting how Bobby likes baseball analogies and Chuck likes his chess analogies.

Ari Spyros shows up and this is who warned Chuck about the upcoming investigation against his office.

source: Showtime

Chuck tells Bryan, Lonnie and Kate to co-operate with Dake. The three of them catch the threat underneath the advice.

Bryan gets off to a great start with Dake by telling him his first question is

“Ambiguous. Sharpen up the question so I can give you a good answer.”

It seems Oliver Dake knows of Bryan’s meeting with Axe. Bryan reported it, but is getting a hard time over it. Bryan tells a lie here because the last thing Axe said to him is

“I didn’t hear no.”

So Axe most certainly would not remember it the same way as Bryan apparently does…or is telling Dake he does.

Source: Showtime

Axe goes to see Wendy, under an assumed name. Something Wendy is not happy about. Axe tries to assume authority, but Wendy is shutting it off. Bobby ‘needs’ Wendy back and she is not having it. He is too selfish. When he does not get his way he starts to put down what she is doing. Wendy tries asking Bobby to respect her wishes.

Mafee is discussing trades with Taylor. Taylor is obviously very smart and Mafee is smart enough to recognise that.

Lara is having a family disagreement with one of her brothers about Axe. Matt eventually goes out to Axe, under protest. Raul is there as well.

Lara is trying to convince her cousin to take the Nurse job at the School, but her cousin is not having it.

Raul is keeping the conversation going as the tension between Matt and Axe is obvious.

It seems that Adam is now a judge and Chuck needs Adam to tell him who sent Dake and make him gone. It is already clear the influence Adam has is going to be a problem.

Dake is looking at Chuck’s financials and he notes the £5 million received by Wendy on the day Chuck suspended the action against Axe. Predictably, Dake isn’t going to believe that Chuck didn’t know about this and essentially suggests Chuck has taken a bribe.

Source: Showtime

Chuck and Wendy are nesting – they are both still staying in the house, but spending their time apart and separately with the children. Naturally, Chuck bringing up the £5 million leads to another argument.

Back at the race course Bobby talks about learning how to bet. He admits Orrin and everyone else is right about not making a move on Rhoades. However, he needs Rhoades gone. He orders Orrin to buy up claims of everyone who has legitimate reason to be aggrieved by Chuck.

A biker finds a unique way to serve 127 lawsuits on Chuck Rhoades.

Chuck and Adam have a discussion about Chuck’s situation and the investigation against him.

Chuck gets a call from the AG summoning him to her office.

Dake suggests that Bryan was the one that tipped off the investigation…I am not so sure.

2 thoughts on “Previously on Billions: Season 2, Episode 1”

Ha! I did not think that Bryan told a lie to Dake, but you are right, as much as he did not say YES, he did not say NO, either. I am not sure if Axe would remember the evening exactly as Bryan did. I also thought, and wrote in my recap that it could be Axe/Bach who could have called the OPR, but I am having second thoughts about that. I am dying to see where that storyline will end. Lots of personal stress in the US attorney’s office this semester.

Again, I love your attention to detail — Bobby gives baseball stories where as Chuck gives chess stories. I wonder if there is a baseball person and a chess person in the writers’ room. Or if it is, like you also observe in Lady Trader’s post, that it is standard to make baseball analogies in the hedge-fund world and if the legal world likes to talk about chess 😀

Isn’t Bobby like Peter Pan who does not want to let Wendy go back home to grow up? 😀 Ha! I did it again. So interesting I catch myself again and again calling him Bobby only in the presence of Wendy and Bruno. Axe, otherwise 😀